Recruiting: The middle of the funnel – who’s responsible?
If you’re in B-school admissions or marketing, you’re familiar with the common push-pull of who’s responsible for filling your next class.
Hey, we’re all on the same team, right? Then why does it sometimes feel divisive when it’s time to assign accountability for a waning class size, or take credit for an overflowing classroom on day 1? Let’s talk about where the most important action happens – the middle of the funnel.
Admissions Team
You’ve collaborated with marketing on a strategy to bring leads into the top of the funnel. You’ve stated your goals, approved a plan, and you’re gaining traction. Your pool of leads may be growing and your admissions events have attendees. You’re ready for them to apply – NOW! After all, they showed up, called you or filled out a form – they must be interested right? Here’s where the questions begin:
- If we spent money to bring them in and they’re not applying, are they the right leads?
- Did marketing lead us astray on strategy? Should they be doing more emails/advertising/InMails/billboards/radio? (Fear not, marketing folk, we’ll get to you.)
- Is our database stale?
- Is the competition eating our lunch?
All of these things (and more) are possible, however, consider asking these questions about your prospects, instead:
- What barriers do they have and how can I address them?
- How could I get them to interact with my school, either on-campus or online?
- Could I connect with them (beyond email) in a meaningful way?
- Could I collaborate with my team or my agency to develop a calling campaign, email campaign, mailing or webinar series to engage those that have been stagnant?
- Is there any content I could share with them that would be interesting and compelling, i.e. video or a professor’s recent book?
The goal here is to focus less on “what went wrong” prematurely and more on how you can help your prospects make a decision. With a different approach, you may be surprised at how much action you can spur, pulling them through the murky waters of the middle funnel and down to the bottom where you’re ready for them.
Marketing Team
You’ve done your job. You’ve developed a marketing strategy, your advertising is filling admissions events, you’re tracking activity on your dashboard, and you’re seeing an uptick in YOY leads. So why are applications down? Here’s where the questions begin:
- How is admissions following up with the leads I generated for them?
- What is happening at admissions events if no one is applying?
- Do I need to ask for more advertising budget?
- What is the competition doing that we’re not?
All of these things (and more) are valid, however, consider asking these questions about your prospects, instead:
- What barriers do they have and how can I address them?
- How could I get them to interact with my school, either on-campus or online?
- Could I connect with them (beyond email) in a meaningful way?
- Could I collaborate with my team or my agency to develop a calling campaign, email campaign, mailing or webinar series to engage those that have been stagnant?
- Is there any content I could share with them that would be interesting and compelling, i.e. video or a professor’s recent book?
So, you see, the second set of questions is the same for both teams, implying the need for a paradigm shift in how you think about the middle funnel. If you can collaborate and share the responsibility, you can also share the victory.
Find out more about how to engage prospects in the middle of the funnel with digital marketing or contact center solutions. Contact GPRS.
